Day 15 - Friday July 13, 2012

Day 15 Friday - Our last day on Caye Caulker :-( and its only a 1/2 day!

The plan today was to get up early and go snorkeling at the Split. This is something we just didn't make the time to do during this trip. The thought of having to pack wet clothes doesn't appeal to me, so in the end that's not how our morning went...and as always...what happened was exactly what should happen.

We woke up way too early - before 6. Finally Lincoln's mention of the possibility of getting one of Glenda's Caye Famous Cinnamon Rolls if we made it to her restaurant around opening time (7am) got me out of bed. At the beginning of our stay we got there at 8am and she was sold out. We found out today why. She supplies all the restaurants on the island. We saw people leavings with BAGS FULL of her cinnamon rolls. We stood in line for close to 15 minutes just to order our food, I was sure she was going to be sold out by the time we got to the counter...she wasn't (happy dance) so I ordered TWO. Linc got one wit his Eggs. They were VERY good!

Lincoln starts talking to a man and his 2 sons (from Sacramento and previously from SJ) so invites them to sit with us. While we are eating, John (Linc's dive Buddy and our new friend) rides up on his bike. He has his dry bag (for diving) so its easy to know where he's going. I say "Are you going diving", his response is "Its daylight isn't it?" LOL, gotta love it! I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not...instead of a Gym Membership, John has a Dive Membership, so he dives whenever he wants - pretty cool!!

John orders his food and sits down to eat so we get to talk to him some more. He is a really cool guy. An ex-CEO, very high powered man from the Newspaper industry. He once led a very stressful life and now the polar opposite. He has lots of cool stories Linc tells me. 

Eventually its time for us all to leave. Linc needs to go back to the dive shop to get last night's dive signed off in his book, John is going out on the boat and I need to go back to the room and get cool. Its about 8:30 at this point. We have to check out at 11:30, taxi is coming at 12:15. Flight off Caye Caulker is at 1:10.

I work on my blog, it would be nice to be caught up BEFORE I leave the island...but that's not gonna happen. Though this way the time on the flight to Houston and maybe even SJC will pass quickly as I will be finishing it up then, at least the commentary. I'll add the photos from home and post from there which I'm sure will be much quicker.

Finally at about 10am I shower. Lincoln suggests I email Sara about this house we looked at but didn't get to see the inside of. It belongs to a local woman. We have a bit of spare time this morning. I get an email back saying sure, she'd love to show it to us and tells us where to meet her and that she'll hire a taxi to take us out to the home. So around 10:30 we move our suitcases downstairs for safekeeping until of airport taxi cart comes. We check out with Doris and pay our bill and walk to the Amor Y Cafe to meet Sara. We see her on her bike on Front St and wave at her. At about 11am the taxi arrives and drives us the 5-7 mins out to the home. It has 2 rooms (1 bedroom and an office) a bath and an open concept Kitchen, Dining Room & Living Room on the 2nd level. On the first level it has a "workshop" that could easily be turned into guest quarters. The rest of the underneath of the home could be enclosed. There are lots of possibilities. It has access to a pier and is on the leeward side of the island. Its one street over from where Barry & Lindsay live, basically one lot over from their backyard. We are really glad we were able to see the inside before we left today!

$98k

                                            Great floors!

                                         A Palm in the yard!

                                     Just one of the views....

We get back to Tree Tops at 11:45, just as our Taxi driver rolls up. He must have misunderstood quarter PAST 12 with quarter TO 12. Oh well, we get to the airport REALLY early. We thought we might be able to get on the 12:10 flight but today there wasn't a flight because no one was booked on it. Thankfully they had a nice waiting room that was air conditioned so I plugged in the laptop and started typing the blog. I was happy to be cool!

This sign was on the road to the airport. I told the Taxi driver they should put it on Front St (the main drag) for the tourists who drive too fast, he said they don't want to scare the tourists, LOL! That it was directed at the locals (probably the taxi drivers) because when this stretch of road is dry people tend to drive too fast.

Right on time they have the 3 of us that are waiting, a almost full plane...it had 3 empty seats...so now the plane was full. The co-pilot seat was a passenger. Before we physically got on the plane we watched as they fought with our biggest bag...trying to stuff it in the compartment under this small plane. They tried every direction and I thought it might have to go inside with us, but eventually they squeezed it in. 

Notice it has ONE prop!

               I don't get to sit with my honey, but we both get window seats!

The flight was really cool. I video taped most of it. It was smooth and quick. The sights were amazing. I'm glad we went from Belize City to Caye Caulker via Water Taxi and I'm equally happy we left via plane. Both experiences were really cool!

The flight was about 15 minutes. The landing was smooth and though it was warm, it wasn't as hot as I expected as we walked across the tarmac. Our experience at "International", as this airport is called, was uneventful.

                                Belize City - International Airport

Our flight was late taking off, due to the plane arriving late, but that's ok. When we get to Houston (late) the line for Customs is LONG and takes us 40 minutes to get through it. Then we still have to get our bags, go through another quick Customs Bag check, then re-check our bags with TSA and stand in a fairly long queue for another TSA check (like we've been anywhere but within control of Customs). This takes another 20 minutes, it takes us 10 minutes to get to our next gate which gets us there at exactly 9:15, when our flight was supposed to take off...fortunately this flight is 1 hr 45 mins late so we didn't miss it :-) Its all good!

We land in San Jose at 12:40, get our bags, grab a taxi to take us to the truck which is safely parked at Lincoln's office on base. We arrive home at about 2:20am. Pull in the 'carry on', orient ourselves, freshen up and climb into bed.

Vacation is officially over. We had a GREAT time in Belize and most of all on Caye Caulker. We made some fantastic friends and we can't wait to go back and we will!!!!!!!!!! 

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have writing it. I know I was rarely "up to date" but hey, I was on holiday so I did the best I could! I will be uploading a bunch of photos my husband took when he went out diving and maybe a page with just random other photos that I didn't put in my posts. Maybe people will want to see them...who knows. Anyway, thanks for reading! Take care and be happy. Remember YOLO, you only live once so make it count!

PEACE!

Day 7 - Thursday

Since I went to sleep before 9pm, I start waking up at 5am, I have no trouble going back to sleep and we finally get up at 7:15 because Lincoln is going to go Scuba Diving and has to be there at 8:30.

We aren't sure where we are going to have breakfast except that it needs to be fast (not possible here) so we won't go far. As usual, he wants Eggs and I want fruit. We stop and glance at the Specials Board at Tropical Paradise and see that Corrine is working. Its the first restaurant we come to and taxis go by a lot so we decide to just eat here. Its far to the dive shop so this way Linc can jump on a taxi and be there quickly. I decide that I want something more than just fruit so I splurge and get French Toast and its good! I usually only eat twice a day. Two breakfast entrees, two huge juices and coffee, plus a litre bottle of water to go is USD$20 plus tip. 

Lynn's Breakfast: French Toast & Fruit

                                  Linc's Breakfast: Eggs, Beans, Tortillas, Plantains, Meat etc....

While Linc is scheduling a taxi I start talking to a woman in her 40s at another table. She arrived the same day as we did, she's from Canada and is now "traveling" (on her own). For how long she doesn't know. She may never go back to Canada she says. WOW! She had arrived in Belize City on Sunday from Canada so her Journey has just begun. When Linc returns to the table he asks her to join us, which she does. Cute Corrine seems surprised and asks her why she would join us...I tease that its because we are such wonderful people. Corrine blushes, giggles and rushes off to check on our orders.

Linc finishes eating and jumps on the taxi. Theresa, the Canadian, and I sit and chat for another 20 minutes or so. She's staying at the hotel connected to this restaurant. She was hoping to get one of the cheap rooms BZE$25 ($12.50 US)  but they were booked so she's in a BZE$60 ($30US) room. This is how these folks "travel" for so long. Our room at $12.50 a night would afford her a place to sleep for 10 days! Our entire stay for 12 days would pay for 120 days at the $12.50 price...but that's for a HOT room and I, though not a Diva...do need my A/C so I guess I'm a Princess.

Rastaman & Armando, Dive masters from Big Fish Dive shop come into the restaurant and Rastaman recognizes me. I ask where Philip is because the gal wants to go to Hopkins in Belize and Philip is from there so I knew he could tell her all about it. I was kind of surprised Rastaman remembered me. Later in fact, as I walked by Big Fish, in hat and glasses that I didn't wear before (& without Lincoln who everyone by this time knows - LOL), Oscar the owner waved and said hi. People are friendly and once they talk to you they seem to remember you. Its cool!

I had planned to do some shopping , jewelery shopping but its not even 9am so nothing is open. I walk almost to the split and decide its REALLY hot and I don't want to burn anymore than I probably already have so I see a taxi and ask her how much back "home". She says $5. I say Belize? She says yes. I'm like YES! Yesterday we got taken like 3 blocks for $10 BZE. TOTAL RIP OFF...Linc refused to pay more than $7 (remember divide by 2 for US). I was far from home so $5 was a deal and I was more than happy to pay it. I wonder if its $5 per person??

She took me back. I expected that the girls would be cleaning the room but they hadn't started so I was able to get cool quick. I sat down at the laptop and started to catch up on my blog, answer emails and check out what my friends had posted on Facebook. After awhile the girls came to clean the room so I grabbed a bag of dirty laundry and headed for Marie's Laundry Service which Doris recommended. She told me it was across from the Bank which I remembered was over by 88 West where we had the fantastic Tacos! I headed that direction and was pleased that I found it without issue.

                         Marie sitting out in front of Marie's Laundry

I walked up to Marie and said I heard she was the best in town, that Doris & the gentleman from Bambooze (who was with Doris when I had asked where to go) had both told me not to go any where else. She smiled very big and told me to come back at 5pm. It was probably about 11am. I dropped off 7 TShirts, 2 pair of socks and about 5 pair of underwear - all Linc's stuff. I of course brought a TON of clothes and stuff that I could wash out in the sink, so I'm all set.

I walk back to Tree Tops hoping that the room is done and cold and I can get cool again...nope, they are still cleaning. These rooms are VERY clean. Everything is tile and there isn't a speck of mold, mildew or dirt for that matter. Its comforting to know how clean it is. They give us fresh towels every day, which is nice considering we are showering at least 3, sometimes 4 times a day. They change the sheets every 3rd day. There are no blankets on the bed. Simply one top sheet, which is really all you need.


I sit on the front deck, and sweat, for about 5 minutes and they are done. I thank them as they leave. I spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing, typing a bit, reading my book, mainly staying cool in the A/C filled room!

At around 4pm Lincoln comes 'home'. He's all excited about the diving he just did so we sit so he can tell me about it. We shower and get ready to go out and find some dinner. We aren't sure where we'll go tonight so we just head out and wander. First we stopped at Marie's to pick up Linc's laundry. The charge was BZE$8 so we gave her $10. Later Linc commented that it smelled really good.

On our way to the main drag from Marie's, on a side street we come to Rosie's. Along the front of restaurant there are BBQs. The staff talk to us and we decide to sit at the bar, have a drink and wait to see what they will put out on the tables to BBQ (there are no menus because what they serve depends on what they catch that day). We start talking to a young couple who happen to be from San Francisco.

The fishermen arrive and the staff put out different size lobsters, a bunch of fish of different sizes and huge shrimp kebabs. We aren't that hungry so we decide to share a kebab to start and go from there.

A family of 4 walk in and we begin to talk. They are from Alexandria, VA. Dave, Camille, Catherine (19) & Will (almost 16). They are all divers so Lincoln and they start comparing notes. Our food arrives and we begin eating. Its really fresh and good. Dave asks us if we want some fish. I really didn't understand, I heard something about having "lots of extra", I wasn't clear why they would order too much. We smiled and declined. A bit later we figured out that they had gone fishing that day and caught LOTS of fish, which the restaurant was cooking for them. Now of course we were pleased to say yes, we would love to try their fish. It was amazing.

A staff member and Me (he was as hot as the air!)

The Kebab

                            Snapper caught by the Hartshorn Family

                             The Hartshorn Family aka the Fisherman

                                  The fish when we were finished!

We had a great dinner, met fantastic people and really enjoyed ourselves. We walked back to our room along the beach and the moon was beautiful. We decided to take a drink and sit out on the pier and do some moon gazing. The wind was cool and it was beautiful. Another awesome day on Caye Caulker!

Day 4 - Monday July 2, 2012 - Caye Caulker - Belize

Day 4 - Monday July 2, 2012 Caye Caulker (CC)

First I have to say that we are getting plenty of exercise on this trip and have easily cut our food consumption in half. We walk everywhere and its a sauna so I think it counts double! I know Dr Anne, my Chiropractor/Health Consultant/friend would be proud!

We woke up fairly early, probably about 7:30. We are going out on a snorkeling trip at 10:30am so first we had breakfast at Glenda's. I assume they open at 8am, they opened at 7am so by the time we get there she was out of her 'famous' Cinnamon rolls. She doesn't have fruit on her menu and the thought of eating eggs in this heat is not appealing to me (plus we are going out on a boat and I've been known to suffer from sea sickness), so I just order orange juice. Linc orders eggs, ham, beans and a biscuit -- PIG. I end up eating the biscuit with homemade jam which is awesome. The juice tastes "funny", Linc tastes it and tells me its I think it tastes funny because its actually FRESHLY SQUEEZED from oranges...like the real thing baby! Its not real cold but its really fresh...squeezed moments ago!

We are going to Shark/Ray Alley and two other 'dives'. Its a small boat and the other guests are a group of young Israeli kids you just finished their tour in the
Army. Five girls and one boy. They are very nice. Mario is the Dive leader and Juan is his helper. Mario is a very funny man who has been on CC for 25 years. Between dives they serve us fresh fruit (watermelon and later pineapple which they cut on board) and later we get special punch (rum). We only motor about 10 minutes off the coast of CC to the Belize Barrier reef to Shark/Ray Alley. They are EVERYWHERE! The water is very shallow so I sit on the edge of the boat waiting for the area to be clear so I can slide off the side of the boat and not step on any rays or sharks when my feet hit the bottom (yuck!). The first time I go in, I didn't wear my water socks so I'm afraid to touch the ground. Its sandy with sea grass...but mainly there are rays EVERYWHERE.

                                                    The boat we took out to the Reef

                                                                    These are MY feet

                                                                     Nurse Sharks
NOTE: Our plan is to buy a program at some point that we can use to edit our videos, I'm sure you are wishing we had already done that, or you will be wishing so by the end of this trip. Unfortunately you are gonna have to deal with me wondering if the video is working or with extra time on the end of videos...sorry!

As you see from the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nyUTBd6oo, Lincoln hands me the camera. Its an awesome video! I can't tell if he's handed it to me with the video going or if I'm supposed to take pictures, its hard to see the screen. I assume the video is on. Unfortunately there is a point where he comes up to me from my blind side and scares the living sh*t out of me! I mean REALLY???????? You do not TOUCH me when there are sharks and rays swimming around my feet. I FREAKED OUT! Fortunately the things I said did not end up being recorded. Those of you that know me...can fill in the blanks! I could not get out of the water fast enough. I panicked. Silly I know, but that's what happened. I hyperventilated, the whole nine yards. Juan tried to get me in the boat and couldn't. After a few moments, I was able to calm myself enough to get out on my own. Once back in the boat, I started to calm my breathing. One of the Israeli gals also freaked herself out and came out and joined me. I could then concentrate on calming HER down. Eventually we both calmed down enough and we both went BACK in the water.

Lincoln later told me how proud he was of me. First for getting in the water in the first place with the sharks & rays and then even more for getting in the second time. That was nice. He didn't scare me on purpose, he wanted the camera and thought I knew he was next to me.

Oh...we saw a BARRACUDA (he's in the video above)! Scary looking fish. He was pretty big too! Even freaked out Lincoln who doesn't get phased very easily. While the Nurse Sharks and Rays are docile, the Barracuda is not. We saw him at the first location and then again at the third location. All locations were fairly close to each other so it made sense that we kept seeing him. I of course start to wonder if he's stalking me and wants a chunk of my lily white flesh!

The next two places were fun as well, coral reefs to explore, hundreds of different fish to see and Lincoln saw a bunch of huge Lobsters in the rocks. We even saw a lost Ray. We were always in sight of CC.

                                                       Looking towards the island

We got back to the room about 2pm. The A/C still hasn't been fixed. The repairman should be on the Water Taxi from Belize City that arrives at 4pm. We take ice cold (the only smart kind) showers to get the salt water off us and cool off.

We are hungry and thirsty so we decided to try a restaurant, Tropical Paradise, around the corner & through the graveyard, that's having a Happy Hour (all day really) special of a bucket of 6 beers (9.6oz each) for BZE$20 (USD$10) with Chips & Salsa included. We order that and the girl gets all embarrassed and giggly when we tell her the bucket is just for Lincoln and I want the Banana Colada special 2 for BZE$10. We ordered dinner and hung out for awhile hoping that by the time we got back to our room it would be a cold room.

                                 The graveyard we walk through multiple times each day!

                              Lincoln and his bucket of Belikin Beers

My Love & Me

                             The Fish Fillet Special (yummy potatoes)

At about 5pm a storm came in and it started to pour and get really windy. We thought it might just pass through but it looked like it was going to stay. We have paid for a trip to the Blue Hole tomorrow. Fortunately we have plenty of time and if we don't go tomorrow there will be other trips we can go on. The rain comes and goes but the storm is sitting over us. The good news is that it does cool things off a bit.

                                      After the first rain shower

When we headed back to the room we found that our room was still a "hot room". Doris set us up in room #2 on the first floor while the repairman worked on the A/C unit for our room. Within a short time our room was cold and we were happy campers.

We only ate twice today (I really only ate once). But neither of us are hungry. Its going to be an early morning, we have to be at the pier by 5:45am to go to the Blue Hole so our plan is to go to sleep early but of course its almost 11 before we finally get there.

I'm so far behind in this blog that I spend time typing it instead! Adding pictures seems to take even longer than typing it. Gotta please the fans - LOL!

I'm thrilled so many people, friends and people I don't know, from all over the world are reading my blog! Thank you!!!